


The jokes funnier when you ain't the punchline

by junebugtwin



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Angst, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, How Do I Tag, and her shitty parents, featuring baby toph
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:33:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22344145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junebugtwin/pseuds/junebugtwin
Summary: “Toph my princess, recently you’ve really been acting out, and your mother and I…well, you know we love you right?” Toph instinctively curls in on herself, keeping her eyes fixed firmly on the floor. Uh oh. ‘You know we love you’ is code for ‘your gonna need convincing we love you after whatever I’m about to say’.“I know.” Toph replies, suddenly tired.---Children don't start out lying to their parents, not as perfectly as Toph did. No, that kind of behavior was learned.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 93





	The jokes funnier when you ain't the punchline

**Author's Note:**

> I was just thinking about the most perfect show ever made, Avatar, and the most perfect character in said show, Toph, (obviously)and wondering how she even got so good at deceiving her parents in the first place. When she was younger it would have been much harder to hide her true emotions, especially for someone as forceful as Toph. I dunno, I just wanted to explore their relationship a bit, since we don't get that many details on her childhood in the show.

Her father tilts his head at her, and she can feel the impatient shift in his stance, hear the sigh between every syllable.

“Toph _dearest_ , your behavior to general Gon was _most_ upsetting, I think…you really hurt his _feelings_. I understand you’re going through _so_ much, but I need you to go apologies to him before he leaves.” Toph scowls, and crosses her arms, he was like a billion years old, surely he didn’t actually need his ‘hurt’ feelings to be soothed by the eleven year old that snapped at him. Tophs mother hovers nearby, and Toph supresses a shiver at the sound of her sharp nails clenching drywall. Toph hesitates.

“NOW Toph!” Her mother adds, frustration evident in her tone, barely supressed anger clenching in her first. Toph puffs her chest out and glares at her mother- not at her eyes, around her chest- her mother hates it when she looks at her where her eyes should be ( _Because she finds it creepy, and that makes Toph itchy and uncomfortable for some reason_ ) and also because her mother wouldn’t talk to her for a week after she deliberately met her eyes in an argument. ( _She’s not lonely, what does she care, she doesn’t even want to talk to her anyway, its fine_ )

“I don’t care! It’s not my job to kiss up to these hoity-toity morons!” _That’s your job_ Toph barely resists adding, already regretting her father’s small step backward (like he’s shocked, like she doesn’t act like this all the time) and her mother’s hands flying to her mouth, muscles clenching throughout her rigid body. For a moment there is silence, as her mother silently sends some sort of message to her father through what is probably intense eye contact. Almost thirty seconds go by as they quietly communicate, and frustration heats Tophs skin and she blushes- or she’s pretty sure she does. She hates this. She hates that they think somehow their fooling their blind simple daughter, probably proud of their own little language that she doesn’t understand- the joke she doesn’t get. ( _why is she always the punchline?)_

“Toph _my princess_ , recently you’ve really been _acting_ out, and your mother and I…well, you _know_ we love you right?” Toph instinctively curls in on herself, keeping her eyes fixed firmly on the floor. Uh oh. ‘You know we love you’ is code for ‘your gonna need convincing we love you after whatever I’m about to say’.

“I know.” Toph replies, suddenly tired.

“ _Well_ , we just think- and we don’t want to make your life _any_ harder for you than it _already_ has to be- but well-“ Tophs mother interrupts her father’s slow sugary sweet words.

“Were sending you to a Reform School. Specifically Ba-Sing-Se’s Private Reform School for girls. There’s only the one and its upper ring!” Toph blinks, immediately taking a step back from her parents. Wha- What the hell! They can’t do this to her! They can’t just shove her away whenever she becomes a problem! What about her delicate sensibilities!? What about her apparent helplessness?! She- she can’t go to a reform school! That sounds absolutely terrible! Being locked in a fancy jail while some know it all tells you the proper way to bow to your husband has to be some form of child abuse or torture right?! ( _They’re trying to fix her, she doesn’t want to be fixed, she’s scared, she doesn’t want to be different, she likes who she is now_ )

“WHAT?!” Toph practically yells, briefly ashamed of the high octave her voice reaches in her panic. Her father gestures in some way, she assumes probably a soothing manner.

“It’s _alright_ , it’s _alright_ , aww buttercup _please_ don’t stress- you’ll _faint_! It’s only for a year my _darling_ _dearest_ , practically _no time_ at all!” His honey gooey voice sinks into Tophs skin so that she can practically taste it, plum fruit that are sickly sweet and rotting slowly. Her mother approaches her now, and she’s more relaxed than before Toph can tell.

“Who knows, you might even like it!” Her mother is smug, she likes that’s Tophs unbalanced, likes that she’s frazzled and alarmed. Toph grits her teeth ( _she wants to crack them, wants to smile at her mother with bloody gums_ )

She feels like crying, but breaks a lamp instead.

She’s sent to that reform school.

She doesn’t become a better person, she doesn’t become a proper lady and a polite weakling or a frail girl. ( _they don’t fix her, and she doesn’t know whether or not to be disappointed_ ) She does learn how to pretend to be these things though. She learns how to poor tea and bow properly, and bashfully cover her mouth with a fan, and react in all the right ways. Her parents eat it up. They do not question their suddenly tame daughter- they do not miss who she once was. ( _they talk about the real her like she’s a dead relative they never particularly liked_ ) 

Toph smiles more than ever, but she’s not happy. She’s angry. So angry. She needs someone to hurt.

She joins a secret underground fighting ring. She’s not especially good at it at first, and comes home hiding plenty of bruises.

She wants someone to hurt ( _even if that someone that has to be hurt is her_ )

At least its something.


End file.
